You might want to check out John Green's FAQ about An Abundance of Katherines, the novel in which this quote appears: http://johngreenbooks.com/katherines-questions/
The quoted text appears fairly early in the novel, a thought of the main character of the novel. The irony is, one of the main points of the novel is to argue against this seemingly laudable position. All in all, it's a treatise against the concept of genius and singular, divine embodiments of ideals. Grab a copy and see if it convinces you.

Holy Crap, it's time for a new episode of Radio Free Burrito! Has it really been three weeks since the last show? I guess it has. Well, I brought a note that will hopefully excuse my absence... Show Notes: The logo was designed by WWdN:iX reader Marc, who asked that I not link to his "in progr...